Americans United - Delawarehttps://au.org/tags/delaware
enIgnorance Is Bliss?: Del. Pastor Proposes Excluding LGBT Definitions From Textbookshttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/ignorance-is-bliss-del-pastor-proposes-excluding-lgbt-definitions-from
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-jones">Sarah Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fink, who pastors the Millsboro Bible Church, hasn’t bothered to present a secular argument for his campaign. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Delaware’s Indian River School District (IRSD) is prepared to vote on new health textbooks this month. And if board member Shaun Fink gets his way, the books will exclude any mention of LGBT individuals. He’s also proposed excluding lessons on HIV/AIDS and contraception in favor of promoting an abstinence-only approach to sex education.<br /><br />Fink, who pastors the Millsboro Bible Church, hasn’t bothered to present a secular argument for his campaign. “I live a life where every day my attempt is to honor God,” he <a href="http://www.delmarvanow.com/longform/news/local/delaware/2014/10/10/lbgt-fink-school/17032599/">told DelmarvaNow</a>, a local news website. “Part of honoring God is maintaining his precepts and scripture, and I cannot justify teaching our children we should accept, condone or consider normal, things that God says are not normal, things that God says are an abomination.”<br /><br />Public schools, of course, cannot teach children what Shaun Fink thinks God says. In a letter submitted to the school board, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) <a href="https://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/248827962?access_key=key-%20XLahYgJ6xTfAyEzLRumT&amp;allow_share=true&amp;escape=false&amp;view_mode=scroll%20target=">reminded officials</a> they’re required to uphold the Constitution.<br /><br />“To deny students such information because of anyone’s religious or other personal belief-based objections would raise serious First Amendment concerns and, in turn, compromise our public education system and potentially expose students to unnecessary and significant health risks,” <a href="https://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/248827962?access_key=key-%20XLahYgJ6xTfAyEzLRumT&amp;allow_share=true&amp;escape=false&amp;view_mode=scroll%20target=">NCAC wrote</a>.<br /><br />Fink didn’t take it well. “I think it’s a little bit ironic that the National Coalition Against Censorship is choosing to censor me,” he said, and <a href="http://www.delmarvanow.com/media/cinematic/video/19827883/shaun-fink-reacts-to-national-coalition-against-censorship/">accused the NCAC</a> of “censoring anybody who has a faith-based perspective and a Christian worldview.”<br /><br />The good reverend should perhaps look up the definition of “ironic.” Censorship is exactly what he’s attempting to promote via his elected office. It is not “ironic” for the NCAC to remind that office also carries specific legal responsibilities that he has chosen to abdicate in the name of dogma.<br /><br />The NCAC’s letter, which Americans United also signed on to, notes there’s mainstream scientific consensus that LGBT orientations are not abnormal or unhealthy. There’s also consensus that ignorance about LGBT people leads directly to bullying – a key factor behind the community’s high suicide rates. <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/lgbthealth/youth.htm">The CDC reports</a> that lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide; another study of transgender youth found that a full quarter had also tried to end their lives.</p><p>But Fink isn’t moved by those stats. “It's not my fault there is a high suicide rate amongst young gay people,” he said.<br /><br />The facts spell trouble for the rest of his agenda, too. There’s plenty of evidence, for example, that abstinence-only sex education actually correlates to <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/04/10/461402/teen-pregnancy-sex-education/">higher rates</a> of teen pregnancy. It’s obvious that leaving teenagers ignorant on the subject of human sexuality creates, rather than resolves, public health crises.<br /><br />He face opposition in the community as well. Students and local residents slammed Fink’s proposals at a recent public hearing. Al Snyder, who is gay, lost his U.S. Marine son in Iraq – only to watch Westboro Baptist Church picket the funeral with anti-gay messages.</p><p>“I've come across people like you in my life," <a href="http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/delaware/2014/10/28/indian-river-lgbt/18050897/">he told Fink</a>. “It's got to stop. My son died for this country, my partner and I raised him and he died for you and this country. It's an insult to hear your words.”<br /><br />Others noted that Fink’s exclusions could violate the First Amendment. Don Peterson, who represented the Unitarian Universalists of Southern Delaware, said, “Public education must not be designed to support a particular religious belief.”</p><p>“LGBT students are here in your schools now. To omit any references to them from the curriculum deliberately diminishes and disrespects them as human beings. Surely that is not an acceptable role of public education,” he added.<br /><br />Peterson is correct. If IRSD officials vote to approve Fink’s proposals, they’d find themselves on untenable legal footing. Legal precedent is clear: Public schools are religiously neutral zones. Fink is attempting to violate that principle, and he shouldn’t be allowed to succeed. </p><p>P.S. Americans United has <a href="https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/delaware-divide-public-schools-remain-fertile-ground-for-disputes-over">had problems</a> with this school district before. Be assured that we’ll be keeping a close watch on things. </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/other-issues-regarding-religion-schools-and-universities">Other Issues regarding Religion in Schools and Universities</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/shaun-fink">Shaun Fink</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/delaware">Delaware</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/indian-river-school-district">Indian River School District</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/sex-education">sex education</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/lgbt">LGBT</a></span></div></div>Wed, 10 Dec 2014 17:32:00 +0000Ms. Sarah Jones10737 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/ignorance-is-bliss-del-pastor-proposes-excluding-lgbt-definitions-from#comments‘What’s In It For Me?’: Public Schools, Public Taxes And The Public Goodhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/what-s-in-it-for-me-public-schools-public-taxes-and-the-public-good
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The taxes we pay for public schools aren’t just about what you get personally. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>A story from the Wilmington, Del., <em>News Journal</em> caught my eye this morning: Some private school parents in the state are angry because legislators are considering <a href="http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/education/2014/02/26/state-may-ax-private-school-transportation-stipend/5850725/">axing a small subsidy</a> they get to offset the cost of transporting their children to private schools.</p><p>The sums involved are not large, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld this type of private school bus aid way back in 1947. It’s not so much a constitutional issue these days.</p><p>But one thing struck me as I read the story: Several of the private school parents complain that they pay taxes for public education and don’t “get anything” for it.</p><p>Parent Michael Charney, whose two children attend a Catholic school, remarked, “I pay my taxes every year and do not get anything from the state other than receiving this check, and now they’re thinking about taking even that away?”</p><p>Charney’s attitude is unfortunate – and it’s all too common these days. He asserts that he doesn’t get anything from those public school taxes. Mr. Charney, you could not be more wrong.</p><p>Let me tell you what you get: You get an educated public. You get kids who learn things and go on to contribute to society. You get literacy and numeracy. You get an appreciation for science. You get a school system, subject to local control and in most parts of the country governed by a democratically elected board, which educates 90 percent of our young people.</p><p>Do you want to be mercenary about it? OK – you get a generation of workers who will someday pay your Social Security. You get children off the street and in the schools. You get less crime.</p><p>You get a system that, when it works as it should because people support it, exposes children to Shakespeare, civics and science all in one day. You get professional educators who have been trained to teach young people things you probably can’t teach them.</p><p>You get a system that by law can’t turn any kid away. Young people with special needs are educated there. Minority students are educated there. Kids who don’t speak English as a first language are educated there. The poor, the rich and the middle class are educated there. Kids with IQs in the stratosphere are educated alongside those who need a little more help.</p><p>You also get a program of secular education and a system that no longer purports to wade into theological controversies. Your children will learn about religion as an academic subject but won’t be indoctrinated.</p><p>Finally, you get the assurance that the public schools will always be there for you. Who knows, Mr. Charney, someday maybe even one of your children will end up there. Remember, your private school can expel students at any time for any reason. The public school system cannot. Your children will always have a place there.</p><p>The taxes we pay for public schools aren’t just about what you get personally. Otherwise, childless people and those whose kids are grown would not have to pay them. We all pay those taxes because public education is part of the common good. That’s why it’s called “public.”</p><p>Not everyone wants to use the public school system, and that’s fine. But these people are in no way entitled to a rebate for the taxes they pay for public education because they benefit from the system whether they’re using it or not. Their argument is akin to a man demanding a rebate for the portion of his taxes that go to the public library because he has enough books at home. </p><p>Education writer Diane Ravitch has <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reign-Error-Privatization-Movement-Americas-ebook/dp/B00BRUQ376/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1393511135&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=diane+ravitch">written eloquently</a> about the role public education plays in American society. She speaks about the common good – a phrase that some people seem to be afraid to use in this country of swaggering bootstrappers. Yet for many of us, the idea of the common good is best exemplified by the public school system.</p><p>So keep paying your taxes, Mr. Charney. And please don’t complain or expect any rebates. I’d say you’re getting quite the bang for your buck.</p><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/other-government-aid-religious-schools">Other Government Aid to Religious Schools</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/delaware">Delaware</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/michael-charney">Michael Charney</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/diane-ravitch">Diane Ravitch</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/public-education">public education</a></span></div></div>Thu, 27 Feb 2014 15:43:00 +0000Rob Boston9686 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/what-s-in-it-for-me-public-schools-public-taxes-and-the-public-good#commentsWelcome To Fantasy Island: Religious Right Attorney Misleads On Council Prayershttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/welcome-to-fantasy-island-religious-right-attorney-misleads-on-council
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">What’s going on in Sussex County, Del., is a classic case of a local government endorsing one religion over others.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>I sometimes wonder what it must be like to live in the Religious Right’s world. It’s a place where if you don’t like reality, you just make up something else. If you’re annoyed by the fact that the Earth is five billion years old, you can insist that it’s only 6,000 and that dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time. If you don’t like the fact that the U.S. Constitution creates a secular government, you can assert that it’s really Christian.</p>
<p>What color is the sky in their world? Perhaps it’s a really cool royal purple!</p>
<p>I got to thinking about this again while reading the latest dispatch from “OneNewsNow,” a web-based Religious Right propaganda mill run by the American Family Association (AFA). (I was a journalism major in college and respect the profession; thus, I refuse to call what the AFA is doing here “news.”)</p>
<p>OneNewsNow <a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=1387468">notes that Mat Staver</a> of the Liberty Counsel, a Religious Right outfit now operated from the Falwell empire in Lynchburg, Va., is not happy with <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2011/06/au-lawsuit-challenges.html">AU’s lawsuit</a> challenging recitation of the Lord’s Prayer before meetings of the Sussex County, Del., Council.</p>
<p>No surprise there. I didn’t expect Staver to like it.</p>
<p>It’s what he says next that gets me. Defending the Sussex practice, he asserts, “Clearly, this is constitutional, and we need to absolutely, unequivocally draw a line in the sand and resist these efforts to de-christianize and de-religionize America by these radical organizations.”</p>
<p>Clearly this is constitutional? On what planet, Mat? You’re dean of the Liberty University Law School, so how about citing some cases? (I’m waiting.)</p>
<p>The fact is, what’s going on in Sussex County is a classic case of a local government endorsing one religion over others. The council president recites the Lord’s Prayer out loud before every meeting. He does not recite other prayers. I’m not aware of any federal court that has ever upheld a situation like this.</p>
<p>Some so-called “non-sectarian” prayers have survived these challenges – and some sectarian prayers have been upheld, but only when there is religious diversity among the prayers and prayer-givers -- but the Lord’s Prayer is hardly non-sectarian and it is undoubtedly Christian, having been lifted straight out of the New Testament.</p>
<p>Staver goes on to assert that Americans United would “take ‘we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights’ out of the Declaration of Independence; they would eliminate prayer [and] any kind of recognition or acknowledgement of God.”</p>
<p>That’s a serious charge, Mat. Back it up. When have we ever advocated for altering the Declaration of Independence? Name one instance. As for eliminating prayer and references to God, we believe every citizen has the right to engage in the religious activity of their choosing – government, not so much.</p>
<p>Finally, Staver vows to defend Sussex County for free. But again, he fails to tell the whole story. Staver might not bill the county, but if the county loses in court, it will have to pay attorneys’ fees. These can be considerable. If he’s so confident in his legal position, why doesn’t Staver pony up an offer to pay those?</p>
<p>Last month I wrote a <a href="http://blog.au.org/2011/06/23/advice-to-giles-county-thou-shalt-not-gamble-with-scarce-public-school-funds/">blog post </a>about two Kentucky counties – one of them desperately poor -- that are struggling to pay nearly half a million in attorneys’ fees to the American Civil Liberties Union after losing lawsuits over their display of the Ten Commandments. Both counties were represented “for free” by – you guessed it – Mat Staver.</p>
<p>Staver is, of course, free to live in the Religious Right’s World of Make Believe. I just don’t think officials in Sussex County should join him in taking up residence there. It looks nice from the outside, but I hear the place is actually kind of a dump.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=1387468"><br /></a></p>
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</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/prayer-at-government-events-and-legislative-meetings">Prayer at Government Events and Legislative Meetings</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/delaware">Delaware</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/liberty-counsel">Liberty Counsel</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/liberty-university-law-school">Liberty University Law School</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/mat-staver">Mat Staver</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/sussex-county">Sussex County</a></span></div></div>Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:47:42 +0000Rob Boston2212 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/welcome-to-fantasy-island-religious-right-attorney-misleads-on-council#comments